OC Media | Fierce, independent journalism from the North and South Caucasus

Azerbaijan expels Iranian diplomats

Four employees of the embassy were declared persona non grata as tensions between the two countries remain high.

Georgian Parliament suspends accreditation of opposition journalists

The journalists attempted to get comments on the US sanctions on Georgian judges and the sexual harassment allegations against Shalva Ramishvili.

Alen Simonyan

Armenian Parliament speaker ‘apologises’ for spitting on ARF member

Speaker Alen Simonyan spat in the face of Garen Megerdichian, an Armenian Revolutionary Federation member.

Armenia

Armenia to take part in US-led military drills

The Defence Ministry made the announcement that Armenia would take part in two US-led military drills in Europe in 2023.

Georgia’s ‘Clan of Judges’

US sanctions senior Georgian judges for ‘undermining rule of law’

Georgian Dream responded defiantly, accusing the US of corruption and threatening to leak details of private conversations with US officials.

Azerbaijan–Iran Relations

Azerbaijan conducts mass arrests over ‘Iran-backed coup attempt’

The authorities claimed an Iran-backed group was planning to seize power through armed riots in order to establish a state governed by Sharia law.

North Caucasus

Three police officers killed in latest battle with gunmen in Ingushetia

Russian authorities had been searching for the group following an attack on a police checkpoint on 27 March.

The Caucasus Digest

Podcast | Senior Georgian judges sanctioned by US and Russia’s ban on Armenian dairy products

US sanctions on four senior Georgian judges and Russia’s ban on Armenian dairy products.

Features & Analysis

Datablog | Shifting tides: changing dynamics of social capital in Georgia and Armenia

By Milord Shengelia

Caucasus Datablog

Datablog | Shifting tides: changing dynamics of social capital in Georgia and Armenia

Levels of social ties and trust vary between and within Georgia and Armenia, and have changed significantly in the last decade.

By Robin Fabbro

Azerbaijan

Analysis | How Azerbaijan’s youth feels towards different countries and the conflict

Polling by the Agora Analytical Collective shows which countries young Azerbaijanis like and dislike, which they see as a threat or an ally.

By OC Media

sukhumi

Activists rally against ‘monster’ building on Sukhumi seafront

The construction of a multi-storey building in a historic quarter of Abkhazia’s capital has prompted pushback from activists and architects.

Poisoned, soaked, but still dancing: Georgia’s Zoomers come of political age

By Tata Shoshiashvili

Georgia’s Foreign Agent Law

Poisoned, soaked, but still dancing: Georgia’s Zoomers come of political age

Sassy posters, raving to sirens, and dancing with water jets have become symbols of the protests that defeated Georgia’s foreign agent bills.

‘Irrationality is subjective’: fears rise of conflict between Iran and Azerbaijan

By Ismi Aghayev

Azerbaijan–Iran conflict

‘Irrationality is subjective’: fears rise of conflict between Iran and Azerbaijan

As the two countries exchange increasingly aggressive rhetoric and actions, some worry that a serious conflict might break out.

Georgia’s lost parents and sold children

By Tata Shoshiashvili

Human trafficking

Georgia’s lost parents and sold children

A group in Georgia claims to have reunited 500 people sold by doctors as newborns with their biological families.

Opinion

By Bahruz Samadov

nationalism

Opinion | Azerbaijan needs an alternative to nationalist militarism

Civil society must step up and propose a progressive alternative to Baku’s rule — one that challenges the nationalist militarism at its core.

By Bashir Kitachayev

Lachin Blockade

Opinion | Greenwashing a blockade

It is clear that the ‘eco-protesters’ blocking the Lachin Corridor were put there by Baku.

By Tigran Grigoryan

Armenia

Opinion | Russia’s shifting interests are leaving Armenia out to dry

Russia is reneging on its long-term alliance with Armenia, in favour of closer ties with Azerbaijan and Turkey

Voices

Voice | Three months in a Georgian Dream troll factory

Nino, 17, found that working for the ruling party meant fake social media flashmobs, no contracts, and broken promises.
Voice | They slapped me and called me a faggot: my experience with the Tbilisi police

Giorgi Mzhavanadze, director of the Shame Movement, recounts his experience in the Ninth Police Department in Tbilisi.
Voice | ‘Why I burnt my Russian internal passport’

At a demonstration in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on 25 February, Anton Mikhalchuk, a citizen of Russia, set alight his Russian internal passport.
Voice | ‘I dreamt of freedom’

An Armenian-Lebanese repatriate tells the story of her capture by Azerbaijani forces following the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Voice | ‘They love each other very much’

Fifty-six-year old Inga Sindeeva told OC Media about the joys and the challenges of being a foster parent in Georgia.
Voice | Life with hands of metal

Artyom Arakelyan lost his hands at 12 years old, but this has not stopped him from becoming a linguist, football coach, and amateur pianist.
Voice | ‘They did nothing to help, they abandoned us’

He was promised a decent job and a good salary in Germany, but instead he found lies, squalor, and backbreaking labour.
Voice | ‘Women must put an end to the war’

Araksia Martirosyan, participated in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, fought during the four day clashes in 2016, and returned to the front in 2020.
Voice | ‘I was shot twice in the head and abducted, but I survived’

Sufyan had a promising life and career ahead of him until he reported his superiors for a massive fraudulent scheme.
Voice | I'm looking for my child

In the wake of the revelations about the trafficking of newborns in Armenia, Haykuhi Khachatryan began to believe that her late newborn was still alive.
Voice | ‘I knew from age 6 that I was born in the wrong body’

A 42-year-old transgender man shares his story of discovering his real gender identity and the struggle of living in Georgia as a trans person.
Voice | ‘I went to war at 17’

Sent to war aged just 17, WWII veteran Vardanush Zakaryan tells how her love for her husband survived both war and death.
Voice | ‘In my hands, a weapon has become a work of art’

Artak Tadevosyan from Gyumri gives new life to used bullets and casings.
Voice | ‘I was kidnapped by my family’

Devran Ibrahimsoy, 25, did not receive his family’s support when he discovered his gender identity; after he fled to Baku, they even kidnapped him.
Voice | ‘I’ve been homeless since 2000’

The trials, tribulations, and occasional moments of grace in twenty years of living on Tbilisi’s streets.
Voice | ‘We are all tired, but we shouldn’t give up’

Georgian doctor Nino Kvirtia talks about fighting both the coronavirus and the accompanying disinformation.
Vitali Safarov’s mother: I must know why they killed my son

The mother is appealing the court’s verdict which said the murder wasn’t a hate crime.
Voice | ‘Whether I have a disability or not, I am still me’

Jamila Mammadli, 26, talks about love, her passion for the theatre, and the preconceptions about disability that are pervasive in Azerbaijan.
Voice | ‘They say Georgia is a tolerant and diverse country; these are just words’

Gulgun Mamadli, 22, talks about experiencing xenophobia and hate speech during the pandemic.
Voice | The bitterness of the Kvankhidatli salt — the women salt miners of Daghestan

In the mountain village of Kvankhidatli, women recall ‘going to the salt’ since the beginning of the 20th century.

In Pictures

Georgia’s Foreign Agent Law

In pictures | Georgians defeat the foreign agent law

The Georgian Government made a U-turn on the bill after a second night of huge protests in Tbilisi.

By Mariam Nikuradze
Georgia’s Foreign Agent Law

In pictures | Tear gas and water cannons: Georgia’s foreign agent protests

Riot police used force to disperse tens of thousands of protestors against the foreign agent law after it was passed by parliament.

By Mariam Nikuradze
Lachin Blockade

In Pictures | Life in limbo at the Hotel Goris

Unable to return home, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh caught on the Armenian side of the Lachin blockade have temporarily settled near the border.

By Tom Videlo
Georgia

In Pictures | Georgia’s shrinking train lines

Trains were once among the most reliable methods of transport in Georgia, but closures under the guise of the pandemic have left many cut off.

By Mariam Nikuradze
Armenia

In Pictures | Armenia’s not-so-velvet counter-revolution

Armenia’s opposition protesters remain steadfast in their demand for Pashinyan’s resignation, though they have few specifics on what happens next.

By Peter Liakhov
Georgia

In pictures | Georgians killed in Ukraine receive hero’s welcome in Tbilisi

Gia Beriashvili and Davit Ratiani were killed on the Irpin front, northwest of Kyiv, on 18 March.

By Mariam Nikuradze
Georgia

In Pictures | Fighting to save the art of Borchalo carpet weaving in Georgia

There are only a few dozen women who still weave the carpets, a unique art practised mostly by Georgia’s ethnic Azerbaijani community

By Tata Shoshiashvili
early marriage

In pictures | Education in the shadow of early marriage

A few brave Yazidi women in Armenia have bucked tradition and sought a university education, to uplift not only themselves but their whole community.

By Hermine Virabian
Georgia

In pictures | Lips sewn shut in Chiatura’s sinking village

Residents of Shukruti say their houses continue to collapse due to mining underneath, and neither the mining company nor the government is listening.

By Mariam Nikuradze
COVID-19

In Pictures | Forgotten by the highway

From hammocks to nazuki sweet bread, the roadside wares that make travel in Georgia such a delight are in danger of disappearing.

By Tamuna Chkareuli
Georgia

In Pictures | Bakuriani’s corona freeze

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought life in Georgia’s most popular ski resort town to a painful standstill.

By Tamuna Chkareuli
In pictures | Tbilisi’s ‘jarti’ collectors

A look at Georgia’s uneasy scrap industry shows how Georgia’s present situation reflects in the piles of tin, copper, and brass.

By Tamuna Chkareuli
Georgia

In pictures | Struggle in the open-air: Tbilisi’s Navtlughi Bazaar

The open-air bazaars of Tbilisi began with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s; they remain a vital lifeline for many.

By Sophi Mdivnishvili
Georgia

In pictures | Borjomi’s year-long winter

Residents of the legendary spa town have banded together to try to survive the disappearance of the summer tourism boom.

By Ekaterina Anchevskaya
Georgia

In Pictures | Women’s voices in forestry

The women who live off Georgia’s forests, and the women who tend to them tell their stories.

By Salome Kinkladze
Azerbaijan

In pictures | Strategic object: Baku’s years of transformation

In a four year project, Chloe Borkett captured images of Baku’s metamorphosis in the 2010s from a different angle.

By Chloe Borkett
In pictures | Rustavi: The city of factories

Rustavi’s factories have led to ‘alarming’ levels of air pollution in the city — local activists, backed by the city council, are getting fed up.

By Tamuna Chkareuli
racism

In pictures | Black Lives Matter protest in Tbilisi

Several dozen protestors gathered in central Tbilisi in support of the ongoing demonstrations in the United States.

By OC Media
In pictures | Tbilisi’s night bus — a shelter on wheels

Tbilisi introduced a night bus two years ago between the city centre and the airport. Now, it serves as overnight accommodation for the homeless.

By Tamuna Chkareuli
COVID-19

In pictures | Life under quarantine in Gyumri

Hopes for a bumper tourist season in Armenia’s second-largest city have been put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic.

By Anahit Harutyunyan